AI Laser shaping of diamonds - a game changer

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

"Synova, a Swiss company in which De Beers holds a stake of roughly a third. Synova produces laser technology for cutting hard materials, including diamonds. In 2020, it launched the DaVinci system, which can cut all 57 facets of a round brilliant diamond in one operation."

What this means is one operator can run 6 machines that will laser (burn) the 57 facets on to a diamond. Each machine can produce up to 12,000 carats or diamonds a year.
It is suggested that this will make cutting in country of origin easier to set up.
The planning of the natural rough diamonds will probably still be done in Surat because they have the highly educated and trained math physics dudes that sometimes bash out a hundred options for cutting larger complex rough diamonds.
The polishing will still need to be done on all facets by hand, or perhaps auto (DiaLit etc) machines may still be used for the main facets?
That may mean sending the black burnt but already shaped diamonds to Surat for polishing?
Or importing cutters to train local and indigenous teams.

This could reduce the manufacturing staffing by up to one third and reduce the required footprint.

Diamonds.net - The Man Trying to ‘Democratize’ Diamond Cutting

Automation is already having an effect on the diamond industry, whether in the fields of mining, grading or sorting. But the artificial intelligence (AI) that could transform the industry is in the manufacturing sector, where the trade is bracing for a wave of technological solutions that will...

www.diamonds.net

Diamond cutting solutions with water jet guided laser technology

Discover our high-precision and fast laser diamond cutting systems, incorporating Synova’s Laser MicroJet® (LMJ) technology for gem and lab-grown diamonds

www.synova.ch

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Here is a good demo 3 minute video from The company website

 

[Karl_K]

Checking diamonds for strain is starting to look more important.
Whats interesting is its industrial Lego, 5 axis controllers and servos are commonly available as are lasers.
The file to g-code software is not very hard either could just be off the shelf cam software..
So overall while cool its not impressive compared to other industries.

 

[LilAlex]

Answering the question, "Will the race to the bottom ever end?"

This is like my oil-painting robot that makes a dozen identical canvases is under 30 minutes. I know a "good" oil painting is thousands of dollars so just imagine how rich I'm gonna be!

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Amazing!

Soon we will be able to send robots to those space asteroids made of diamond and bring back faceted gems.

 

[oldminer]

In the race to the bottom, I suppose someone might work on printing perfectly formed 57 facet rounds and fancy shapes in the lab. Why create lab rough if you can just print our a perfectly shaped pre-forms? Then all is needed would be to polish the facets. So long as there continue to be choices in shaping, proportions and outline, most everyone will never notice. Even with more efficient manufacturing, we likely won't see any lowering of prices. Using and maintaining such machinery is not free.

Maybe this machine driven uniformity will lead to better light performance in fancy shapes. That might be a positive outcome.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

In the race to the bottom, I suppose someone might work on printing perfectly formed 57 facet rounds and fancy shapes in the lab. Why create lab rough if you can just print our a perfectly shaped pre-forms? Then all is needed would be to polish the facets. So long as there continue to be choices in shaping, proportions and outline, most everyone will never notice. Even with more efficient manufacturing, we likely won't see any lowering of prices. Using and maintaining such machinery is not free.

Maybe this machine driven uniformity will lead to better light performance in fancy shapes. That might be a positive outcome.

I suspect the lab grown industry will be the earliest adopters of this machine. They have the least to lose being on what might still be the bleeding edge of this technology. And it is a hyper competitive high-tech industry where manufacturers are clamoring for any advantage. It's the perfect proving ground for automated cutting.

Synova's timing is just about perfect I would say.

And to your point about fancy shapes, much experimentation could be done that could result in some really nice innovations.

 

[Karl_K]

There is a ton of tech in the cnc world that could expand this greatly. Particularly with MMD where you could have fixed sized rough blocks as starting points and that easily opens the door to automation and auto-loading and removal.
Even using natural rough a robot could be used to load and unload massive pallets of rough, the system to match the rough to the right code for that rough is harder but could be done. Using a rfid or nfc chip in the holder to match it up to the right file.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

IMaybe this machine driven uniformity will lead to better light performance in fancy shapes. That might be a positive outcome.

Hi Dave, The same planning processes as currently in use, and the same (soft) lab standards exist.
Including the lack of fancy cut grading standrads (with the possible exception of AGSL princess cut grading).

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

So far this laser shaping machine only cuts round diamonds.
It also seems from the video I posted above, that separating rough diamonds that require two or more diamonds to be faceted into the various parts needs to be done on one of their other laser 'saws'. or with traditional sawing or cleaving.

I also wonder if the auto blocking machines, DiaLit etc plus this new one will be used as well?

 

[Wink]

This could reduce the manufacturing staffing by up to one third and reduce the required footprint.

This is the scary part to me. As the robots take over more and more tasks, the work force is reduced. Where will the displaced find work?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

This is the scary part to me. As the robots take over more and more tasks, the work force is reduced. Where will the displaced find work?

This fear is as old as the invention of cotton mills and computers Wink.
There will be less work for those in the middle of cutting process, but the highly skilled and educated planners will still be needed (only for natural diamonds though) and the final polishers because the stones come out of the machine black from having been cut by burning to shape.
Bruters and shapers will go, but sawing to separate rough and polishing the table facet are still jobs that require skill.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Checking diamonds for strain is starting to look more important.
So overall while cool its not impressive compared to other industries.

Second point Karl, yes the diamond world is rarely first. CVD has been used in making sunglass tints etc and packaging products.

This first point is also valid, thanks Karl, now that most diamonds are already sawn and often shaped partially with lasers.
The traditional techniques placed a lot more shock and strain on diamonds and if a stone was likely to break - it would happen during those processes.
For an explanation and the tool to test (which you can do with an old pair of polaroid sunglasses).

Grading & Branding | Stress Scope

www.lexusindia.in

 

[hiratop]

Are these machines precise enough to speed up the cutting of highly optimized diamonds that need to stick to very precise angles for correct light processing
(Octavia, YannPaul White Series etc.)? Does the polishing need to be done manually in any case? The robot diamond master cutter is not yet around the corner, is it?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Are these machines precise enough to speed up the cutting of highly optimized diamonds that need to stick to very precise angles for correct light processing
(Octavia, YannPaul White Series etc.)? Does the polishing need to be done manually in any case? The robot diamond master cutter is not yet around the corner, is it?

Precise enough to apparently cut within a few micron of any plan.
The thing is though that having a plan to achieve what PriceScopers want is unrealistic.
Plans are made to maximize carat weight and avoid inclusions. That means screwing up symmetry.
The robot does as it is told by the robot master. Nothing changes until cut grading standards change.

And no laser polishes diamond.
They come out black because the laser burns away and is not a cutter per SE.
So polishing mostly by hand us still a thing.

 

[diagem]

Precise enough to apparently cut within a few micron of any plan.
The thing is though that having a plan to achieve what PriceScopers want is unrealistic.
Plans are made to maximize carat weight and avoid inclusions. That means screwing up symmetry.
The robot does as it is told by the robot master. Nothing changes until cut grading standards change.

And no laser polishes diamond.
They come out black because the laser burns away and is not a cutter per SE.
So polishing mostly by hand us still a thing.

...precise enough but still far away from nearing the precision of a.. let say Octavia...

Only 4 current geographic locations for the Da Vinci..., we tested it..., facet junctions are all over the place ones you sway a bit from the norm..., and you all must know what that means..

On the other hand, quite an impressive evolution tool that needs to be finetuned much, much more.

 

[diagem]

A pretty recent example of its capability.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

A pretty recent example of its capability.

Thanks Yoram, that is not within a few microns as claimed.
I would love you to send me a printable size of that very wobbly image please!

 

[Dr_Diesel]

Answering the question, "Will the race to the bottom ever end?"

This is like my oil-painting robot that makes a dozen identical canvases is under 30 minutes. I know a "good" oil painting is thousands of dollars so just imagine how rich I'm gonna be!

Brilliant

 

[Dr_Diesel]

This is the scary part to me. As the robots take over more and more tasks, the work force is reduced. Where will the displaced find work?

This is tapping into a much larger social question that applies to many, many fields. Having the power to do something doesn't mean that putting it into practice is a good idea.